District teachers expected to ratify agreement next week

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Members of the board of trustees of the Kentfield School District listen to presentations at a meeting Tuesday at the district office in Kentfield. From left are Davina Goldwasser, David Riedel, Quoc Tran, Sarah Killingworth and Heather McPhail Sridharan. (Keri Brenner – Marin Independent Journal)

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“I can’t really speak for our membership,” said Brad Widelock, chief negotiator for the 80-member Kentfield Teachers Association. “But we (negotiators) believe this is the best we can get from the district at this time.”

Widelock made his comments on Wednesday, after the district and union publicly acknowledged the existence of the tentative agreement at a meeting Tuesday night of the board of trustees at the district office in Kentfield.

“The district and teachers’ union are very happy with this result,” Superintendent Liz Schott said in an email Wednesday.

Teachers will vote Tuesday on whether to ratify the agreement, which calls for 2% salary increases in the current 2019-20 school year and 2.5% increases in 2020-21.

In June, when teachers declared an impasse, the district had been offering 1% raises for one year. Teachers said at the time that was not acceptable given the current cost of living in Marin and the Bay Area.

The tentative agreement also calls for “smoothing out” the salary schedule so that teachers who are at the maximum level of credits for a pay step will still be able to move up with regular increases instead of being stuck in a gap period, Widelock said.

Brad Widelock of the Kentfield Teachers Association says there is a tentative contract settlement in place which he hopes membership will ratify in a few days. pic.twitter.com/My6oxiAsVN

Another significant item in the proposed new contract involves non-discrimination grievances that may be brought by teachers. In the new contract, such grievances may be handled through the contract terms, with a union representative present. In the past, such actions had to be filed with the uniform complaint procedure.

Widelock said the raises, step schedule changes and grievance procedures were among more than 30 items negotiated in a second mediation session held all day on Aug. 7. He said the final contract language was still being worked out between the district’s attorney and the union representatives.

“So many items were negotiated,” he said. “(Tuesday night) was our first public acknowledgement of the tentative agreement.”

Also Tuesday, Kentfield trustees unanimously approved a salary of $269,648 for Schott for 2019-20, the last year of her current contract. She had originally announced she was retiring this past June, but agreed to stay on another year to give the trustees more time to seek her replacement. Board president Heather McPhail Sridharan said later the trustees have agreed to begin soliciting proposals for a firm to handle the search for a new superintendent.

“The KSD board feels very grateful for Liz’s agreement to stay for the 2019-20 school year so that she can play a pivotal role in the transition of a new superintendent for the district,” Sridharan said in an email Thursday.

School starts Sept. 3 in the Kentfield district, which this week is finishing up final touches on major bond construction and landscaping on its school buildings.

NOTE: This article was updated on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2019 to clarify the intent of the Kentfield board to hire a search firm to seek a new district superintendent.